Is your left shoulder getting sore from all the right-to-left traverses in the Flatirons? Do you like road noise and pumpy granite? Then El Barrio, a somewhat industrial bouldering slot nestled behind the guard rail on the west end of Nip and Tuck, is the place for you.

You can see this very overhanging slot on your right as you're driving to Nederland, just as you round the bend and the road straightens out and heads due west (the Barrio is about 100 yards west of Gyro Captain, etc.). Park on the left in a huge pull-out marked by a red RTD bus stop sign. Cross the road, jump the guard rail, ford the marsh and voila!

While there are numerous variations and link-up possibilities in the slot itself, here are a few of the basic first ascents that went in:

Choss Boss (V9): This is a traverse of the entire slot staying high in the black rock through the lip of the lower cave and high across the upper crux section as well. Since like most things at the Barrio this traverse 70-80 feet long, it would probably get a mid-5.13 route grade. 5.13b? FA: Charley Bentley

Barrio Traverse (V9): This version of the traverse has undergone various evolutions as holds have snapped or been cleaned off for safety purposes (as in huge, loose blocks). It's slightly harder than Choss Boss. This variant stays butt-draggingly low through the lower cave and features a dyno crux off of poor holds to a sloping jug. Continue railing right and at the upper crux section continue to stay low on flat holds, making a hard lurch rightward to a flat hold with some traces of glue on it (this used to be much harder until the hold broke). Continue all the way along the lip until you can step off. 5.13b/c? FA: Pete Zoller/Matt Samet

Cave Problem (V9): This reachy, difficult power problem climbs out to the lip of the right side of the lower cave, starting on low holds near the crux of the Barrio Traverse and crossing into a crisp, right-hand layaway in the roof. Lock it off and gun for the upper seam. FA: Charley Bentley

Super Summer Maximum Fun Time (SSMFT) (5.14): Begin on the standard Barrio Traverse, staying low through the cave and busting the dyno crux to the flat, right-hand sloper jug. Without moving up and right to rest on the horns, head left along a rising fingertip seam on crimpers and slots.

This seam leads into Choss Boss. Reverse the lip business of Choss Boss, crusing leftward, then up, then back down along the left margin of the cave to the standard Barrio Traverse starting point.

Now loop back around right, staying low and finishing with the Barrio Traverse via the low finish, going all the way to the end. FA: Matt Samet

El Barrio

Pinche Guey

Turkey Neck Direct

Cruisin for Neo's

Contortionist's Pleasure

El Gallito

Magie Noire

Warlock Pinche

Warlock Pinchers

Québec Connection

Stepping Stones

Unknown Variation

Unknown

Gravel Pilot

Start as for "

Cruisin...

" but head right around the arete. Finish directly over the bulge to the right of "

Crusin...

" Fun little arete.

Boulder up to the same jug system you'd grab to start

Magie Noire

, then head left and straight up the blankish face to the base of the hanging roof. Blocky, pinchy, Rifle-like moves get you through this, then a jug run to the anchors, up over the lip of the wall.

It overhangs 10 feet in 45, with sustained moves -- anomalous for Boulder Canyon and a good pump. If you fall off, maybe you need to "pinche" little harder.

Cruise the 1st 1/3 then get ready for some stemming, jamming, and liebacking the strenuous finger crack. Finish 3ft. left of the crack up an overhanging finger and hand crack (9).

This is the furthest left (north) bolted line on the Stepping Stones wall. Start in a short dihedral and stem up past the first bolt, follow two more bolts straight up, keep going up (stay left of a small roof) through a hand crack (#2 Camalot, and then traverse right to the two bolt anchor atop

Unknown

.

This route is the 2nd route to the left of

Magie Noire

.

The start is bouldery in nature.  Although rock quality is questionable, this route offers nice powerful and sustained face moves all the way up to the crux at 4th and 5th bolt.  Worth 3 stars but deserves only 2 stars due to rock quality.  Body positioning and precise slopy smearing is key to a successful ascent.

This is a fun linkup of "

Warlock Pinchers

" into "

Pinche Guey

". It has a cool sloper crux! Permission was given by Samet and Hache for this line.

Direct (right) start to

Magie Noire

, with four bolts, joining

Magie Noire

over the lip of the prow/jutting roof feature. This is the eighth route in from the left, or second from the right.

I put the first bolt so you can stand on the ground and clip it to protect the opening moves. Use this, or use it to auger up and pre-clip the second, or skip this and just clip the second. Choose your own adventure....

Boulder, shouldery,  on nice blue-and-black rock reminiscent of the Winchester Cave at Rifle.

Fun, overhanging dihedral.  The crux is at the first bolt with a long reach to a small, slopy crimp, but it is sustained until above the second bolt.  Interesting stemming moves and body tension are required for a successful ascent.  Nice big holds from the second bolt to the top anchor.

The Stepping Stones face has always looked appealing from the road, but I'm afraid it deserves a bomb. It's dirty at the bottom, loose at the top, and non-descript but tolerable in the middle. The cracks are poorly defined, so gear placements are not obvious and are scarce, although sufficient. It may be worth doing if you're an adventure climber looking for a new crag to climb or are training for the Eiger. When I apologized to my partner Jana for taking her on this climb she said, "it's not bad." So maybe it's not quite as bad as I make it out to be.

Start: Rossiter just says, in effect, "There's a route somewhere here", and that the right hand start is harder than his 5.7 guess at a rating. On the right side of the crag is a huge roof above a ledge that slants up to the right. There's a lot of chalk on this, apparently from boulderers. Left of this is a steep broken wall with various bulges and overhangs. Left of that is a large left facing corner, and left of that is a steep and overhanging face with 3 bolt routes on its left side. The route we did starts at the large left facing corner. Alternate starts would be a tapering notch in the overhangs right of our start or a stepped right facing corner right of that and left of the huge chalked roof. Both of these are harder than they look (I tried the right hand start, and it's about 5.9 if you diagonal in from the left or harder if you climb the overhangs directly).

The climb: From the large left facing corner walk right on a ledge or climb to this ledge from below. Traverse right across a short steep wall to gain the main face. Climb more or less straight up aiming for the left edge of the large overhangs at the top passing a small overhang and staying left of a right facing corner. There is a good ledge even with the bottom of the orange overhangs that you can belay from. Communication was difficult due to car noise and the overhangs at the bottom, so we belayed here. Continue up just left of the orange overhangs, passing some scary blocks. Angle a bit right into a short right facing corner at the very top. Step right and back left to the summit boulders.

Descent: Walk back a short ways, traverse left, then scramble down the first reasonable-looking gully.

This is the line to the right of

Unknown

, and it goes to the same anchors.

This is an unknown route just right of

Contortionist's Pleasure

. Climb jugs up line of bolts and layback to the two bolt anchor at the top of the route.

Addendum:

this connects with

Contortionist's Pleasure

at its 3rd bolt.

Description

Protection

Routes in Stepping Stones